There are moments in a game that gets your heart racing and you try to fight off the emotion and concentrate on playing out the scene. As much as you want to look around and take in what’s going on, you can’t, simply because your character will die or get caught or some other horrible fate. It’s moments like these that usually make or break a game. Keep in mind, I’m not talking about a cut scene here, I’m talking about a scene that you physically play with the controller. Lets face it, there are several cut scenes that would make the cut, especially from the Mass Effect series.
On the subject of Mass Effect, one part (okay, maybe not just one) sticks out in my mind for being intense and it come from Mass Effect 2 where Joker is no longer just an NPC but someone that needs to save the Normandy and her crew.
One game made it hard for me to play and watch what was going on is from Quadratic Dream’s game from 2005, called Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit). This game has unique controls that reminded me of a Simon from back in the day, that made playing it a challenge at times, especially during the police case.
There are countless other playable scenes that are out there, like fighting for your life at the end of Halo Reach, or destroying Kilrah in Wing Commander 3 that stick with us for years or even a lifetime. Without those heart pumping scenes, a game sometimes falls flat.
